“The money is going to be the same, no matter where I go,” said Bosh. “It’s about winning. I’m finishing my seventh year. Contending for a championship is all I want. I never made it past the first round. I just want to be a contender.”

It’s true. You can paint the rosy picture as bright as you want in the Queen City, but the W’s just simply aren’t there. In Bosh’s previous six seasons with the Raptors, they’ve had ONE winning season. And at 35-37 with 10 games to go, it doesn’t appear they’re going to come out on top of .500 this year either. For a guy that just wants to win, why would he want to stay on a team that has compiled a 249-315 record to date, which is just above 44 percent? To answer that question, I don’t think that he would.

And what better time to leave? The five-time All-Star is averaging career highs in points (23.8), rebounds (10.9) and field-goal percentage (.513) this season for the Raptors, and has shed the prima donna label that has plagued him for years. For once, Bosh is letting his game do the talking, and everyone has taken notice.

Unlike some GMs, I will say that Bryan Colangelo has done his part. With a team payroll in the bottom half of the NBA, he’s made more than his fair share of moves and has shown that he’s willing to spend money to bring in guys. Was signing Hedo Turkoglu to a five year, $53 million contract the best move in hindsight? Perhaps not. But at the time, it signaled to their superstar Bosh that they were willing to bring in pieces to help him out. And that’s all you can ask.

As this season winds to a close, the Raptors are clinging on to the eight-seed by half a game over the Bulls. Assuming they do make the playoffs, this certainly won’t be the year that Bosh finally gets past the first round. So where to from here? Once the Raptors get swept by the Cavs, Bosh has already warned teams not to expect a quick decision regarding his future when the free agency negotiation period opens on July 1.

“I think it’s going to drag out for a while,” said Bosh. “There are so many possibilities and scenarios, with guys staying with their own teams and trying to get other guys [to sign]. You have to look at combinations and possibilities of what could happen. So I don’t expect it to be over too quickly.”

What do you think? Will Bosh stay in Toronto? If not, where will he sign?

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03.29.10 at 11:41 am

Heckler

he aint staying in no toronto. other than Caribana, aint no reason to be in toronto.

and he’s wrong about winning. an NBA players chance at makeing big money is in free agency. when you get into free agency, that is your chance as a pro ball player to get as much money as yoou can; where ever it might be. you didnt leave georgia tech early cause you wanted to be an NBA contender. you left to get NBA dollars. so, get the dollars Chris!

New Jersey would be a good place for him. with devin harris and brook lopez already on board and lottery pick coming (maybe #1 overall) and a new russian billionaire as owner, yeah…NJs future looks bright.

Miami Heat. but Bosh and Wade still might struggle to get 50 wins together. the rest of the roster sucks. and Bosh going to Miami would be good for him, but hella bad news for Beasley.

if he goes west, Houston is the place if Yao opts out. aaron brooks, kevin martin, trevor ariza, chris bosh and luis scola is a VERY respectable starting five.

Dirk aint leaving Dallas. but if Diggler opt out and Cuban dont offer him a crazy extension, expect Cuban to get hometown dallas boy Bosh to pair with Tough Juice

03.29.10 at 11:43 am

Scott

Um, I don’t know where ‘Queen City’ came from. But ok. lol.

Anywho, Bosh is gone. However, I have a feeling that if there’s a sign and trade that can be done Bosh would be willing to let BC have a chance at doing it.

Bosh is a good guy, and I think he’d love to stay, but just doesn’t feel like the franchise is in the right place.

They never really found their groove after the all-star break, it’s a shame as they were playing great ball in the months prior.

At the least, Bosh will walk away a respected alumni of the Raps, and in a 100% better light than VC did.

In the end that’s all we can ask for. Bosh never gave up on the team. Hopefully he finds the success he’s looking for.

03.29.10 at 11:45 am

Scott

@ heckler,

Bosh would get the most money from Toronto, bird rights and all that I believe.

03.29.10 at 12:03 pm

Diggity Dave

The Heat will sign either Amare or Bosh, whichever agrees to a S&T first. Both would be great alongside Wade, and considering how soft and finesse Bosh is, some would say Amare would be the better fit. Plus, Amare could play center and Beasley could continue at the 4.

Otherwise, if the Heat sign Bosh, I could see the Heat packaging Beasley with picks help at the 3. I’m not so convinced that Bosh could play center like Amare.

03.29.10 at 12:07 pm

Brown

I don’t think there’s even a 0.01% chance Bosh stays in TO. Why would he? The team is worse now than when he got drafted. He’s entering his prime and shouldn’t waste it on a franchise that for years has been completely inept at adding complimentary talent. You can’t win an NBA title by yourself and everyone knows Bosh is the only legit player on the Raps. He needs to be on a team with at least 1-2 other reliable players who can help carry the load.

03.29.10 at 12:22 pm

PWEEZY

BOSH is BUST and he is the RUPAUL of big men…if he’s a star player he should be able to carry his team to greater pastures but he isn’t…he’s a legit 2nd option scorer role player…Melo, lebron and wade makes there team win bosh does that some times….toronto should have drafted wade instead of bosh and things would have been really different in toronto. should of would of could of its just talk…but toronto should have traded him last year or two years ago

03.29.10 at 12:41 pm

Diggity Dave

@3

If Bosh gets traded, the new team retains his bird rights, hence why a S&T will still get him the same amount of money from any team.

Toronto of course would have to agree to it, but if Bosh is intent on leaving, it’s better to get something than let him walk away.

03.29.10 at 12:47 pm

LoBezn0

Bosh will leave and will sign with the Bulls.

03.29.10 at 12:48 pm

Rafa23

@PWEZZY

“should of would of could of”
I really hope English isn’t your first language…lmao

03.29.10 at 12:52 pm

chris

raptors, mostly cos of bosh, bargnani, and calderon, are a soft team, adding turkoglu, bellinelli made them softer, wright and jack and evans haven’t been able to offset that, tho’ i think sonny weems and amir johnson try, and derozan may learn how to play defense someday. the colangelo experiment was whether a ‘euro-team’ could succeed in the nba, and the answer is NO. there are several ‘unstoppable’ players in the nba, like dwayne wade, kobe, and lebron, and several rarely stoppable players, like durant and carmelo and nowitzki. bosh ain’t one of them. the new paradigm for winning in the nba seems to be surrounding a rarely stoppable star with several high level defenders and 2nd options for scoring. bosh isn’t that star, and turkoglu definitely isn’t a defender or even a good 2nd scoring option (BAD shot selection, doesn’t work hard to make good shots for his team or himself the way he did last year in orlando). blow it up and start over.

03.29.10 at 12:59 pm

K Dizzle

lol @ post 6

Cautionary tale of not thinkin it out before writin it down. Here’s some Nuggets:
Bosh helps his teams win “sometimes”
Raps should drafted Wade cuz Vince wasn’t dominatin at the 2 spot back then and “obviously Bosh has been a bust
They shoulda traded him 1-2 years ago….

Back to reality, 2 months ago, Bosh was stayin cuz the Raps were the hottest team in the l and looked unstoppable. Watchin the Heat make their comeback yesterday, all I could think was “that dude is gone”
Comin out and sayin he wants to play for a contender don’t really mean much cuz if Lebron signs with Jersey or NY, that changes a lot. Very few contenders can outright add Bosh’ salary, but a sign n trade with those same teams could solve a lot. The good thing for Raps fans is that Bosh most likely won’t TMac em and Colangelo is still a top 3 GM. So what do we know now that we didn’t know a month ago? Nuthin…

03.29.10 at 2:06 pm

@IlluminatiDre

why would anyone saty there?

03.29.10 at 2:22 pm

control

Chris Bosh wants to be a contender…then make his fucking team a contender. I’ve been a huge fan of Bosh’s for years, but god damn, when his team needs a rebound, needs a basket, or needs a stop…where is he? He’s not boxing out, he’s jacking a fade away, or he’s no where to be found.

He’s gotta look in the mirror, Toronto was on a year, just ripping the fuck out of teams. He gets slightly injured and is out a few games and comes back playing like a pussy…suddenly Raps are on a huge losing streak and just looking pathetic. Toronto could have been 3rd or 4th in the East, now they might not even make the play offs. He’s fucking naive if he thinks that his soft, non-aggressive play hasn’t had a hand in that.

03.29.10 at 2:23 pm

LakeShow84

@ Kdizz

Haha when i saw the comeback on Gametime i said the same thing..

Yup hes gone..

03.29.10 at 2:30 pm

PWEEZY

@ RAF23

before you type you should take CB4’s schlong out of your mouth
@ K Dizzle

everbody in toronto knew VC was dying to be traded so having toronto prepare for his exit, they should have drafted Dwade. instead toronto got a bag of crap for trading vc.

Raptors suck they sign TURk big money long term and look how he turned out to be. Lets not forget about Bargni instead of Roy or Derozen instead of Bjennings. Their team scouts suck.

Colengelo top 3 GM he better be really impressive this summer cus i can see him bailing out next year

03.29.10 at 2:30 pm

Darkness

I wonder if they ended up in the lottery and got John Wall, would he stay?

03.29.10 at 2:31 pm

PWEEZY

Control is right about Bosh real talk

03.29.10 at 3:17 pm

JAY

@PWEEZY
hindsight is 20-20 isn’t it??
“Lets not forget about Bargni instead of Roy…”
Same could be said of Morrison over Roy(which is waaaaaaaay worse)… it’s a dissappointment but the draft isn’t an exact science. Get over it. What’s done is done.

“…or Derozen instead of Bjennings”
Are you seriously passing judgement on these two picks already?? Get real. It’s year one of their NBA careers. Derozan is far from a shitty player and his ceiling remains sky-high. Give it at least a few years before concluding Derozan was/is not as good as Jennings.
Even if the Raps did take Jennings, I doubt he would be playing as much as he does in Milwuakee with Jack and Jose on the team. His averages would not be as impressive as they currently are in Milwuakee. You think he’d score 55 points with Raptors?? I seriously doubt that he would have the minutes to do so.

03.29.10 at 3:56 pm

dvs

he should go to Jersey and develop that team into contenders. Out of the teams with cap space, only Jersey and Chicago have good young players. Bosh should go to either one of them.

03.29.10 at 4:54 pm

ab_40

IF he leaves toronto it’s miami or chicago especialy chicago has a nice young core with the only glarring hole at the two spot a bruce bowen type veteran player would be nice there. San antonio would be nice TD and CB4 RJ, Manu and TP that’s a nice 5 out there.

03.29.10 at 6:03 pm

the cynic

Its a battle between the Bulls and Heat for Bosh at this point unless some type of sign and trade goes down.

I think the Heat are the favorite to land Bosh since Beasley/Wade are already in place compared to Deng/Noah/Rose

03.29.10 at 6:35 pm

jau

as a raptors fan I totally 100% agree with control

I’ve been watching the raptors for like 5 years now (I know its a curse) and 80% of the times I love bosh. The other 20% is in crunch time… too many jumpshots… not enough boxing out and too weak. That being said he’s never really had that much help. So I love his heart when the game doesn’t matter as much (first three quarters) but I question his basketball IQ in the fourth.

Also his defense is really bad sometimes… He doesn’t block NEARLY as many shots as he should and when Bargnani averages more blocks then you thats pretty fucking bad.

So in hindsight alot should be put on bosh and if the last three or four games (blowouts against jazz and thunder and collapses against heat and nuggets) are indications… then bosh is NOT WORTH MAX DOLLARS… Im sorry but you DONT GET BLOWN OUT AT HOME… and you certainly don’t lose big leads which is something the raps to CONSISTENTLY…

anyways I realize im rantin here only because I hate being a raptors fan lol… I love bosh but hey… there’s NOT A CHANCE he stays… I guess we’ll be the NJ Nets next year see you all at the lottery!

03.29.10 at 7:08 pm

RC

houston is the best place for him. with super talented pg in brooks and a solid starting five that actually plays defense.

03.29.10 at 7:27 pm

EN FUEGO

Any of those teams from his home state of Texas would be a good fit for Bosh.

03.30.10 at 9:00 am

dat dude 6

@ K Dizzle

How u can u say Vince wasnt dominatin back then…He was the best player on the court on most nights out of a 82 game season….wow, how soon people forget. Now winning is a different story, that takes a good or great team…Vince only has about 2 good teams in his 6 seasons there…

03.30.10 at 11:15 am

rickybuckets

new york would be nice for him. if the rumors of joe johnson going to NY is true. a combo of bosh and johnson with gallinari and chandler would be nice.